The next Shocklab Seminar will be in-person and online on Monday, 8 December 2025, at 16:00 PM. Prof. Benjamin Cowley will be presenting Attention and learning in high performance cognition. Please come along if you can, it's sure to be an engaging talk!
 
Title: Attention and learning in high performance cognition
Speaker: Prof. Benjamin Cowley (University of Helsinki, HiPerCog Group)
Date: Monday, 8 December 2025
Time: 16:00-17:00 (GMT +2)
Venue: M209, Mathematics Building, University of Cape Town
Zoom Meeting Link:  Join Here
 
Abstract: Humans can learn to perform an amazing range of different skills and understanding how new skills are learned and optimised over time is of fundamental interest. High-performance cognition (HPC) is proposed as a domain-general function of acquiring and performing cognitively demanding skills to a high level, in ecologically-valid natural tasks. I outline a research program aiming to elucidate the cognitive mechanics of HPC, exemplified by three of my group's ongoing study tracks: 1) psychological concept mapping, 2) neurocognitive mechanisms, and 3) naturalistic deployment. The current results and prospects of this research program are discussed and linked to the talks of group members also visiting Cape Town, Evgenii Rudakov and Pablo Flores.
 
Bio: Benjamin Ultan Cowley is Professor of Learning in Humans and Machines at the Faculty of Educational Sciences, and a Docent of cognitive science. He defended his PhD in Computer Science at the University of Ulster, Northern Ireland, in 2009, and has led his group HiPerCog since 2019. The HiPerCog group studies how people learn to perform highly-demanding dynamic cognitive tasks, using computational cognitive neuroscience methods.
 

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